Installing Pella French-Door-Style Patio Doors

The next phase of #smartgirlskitchenreno was installing Pella patio doors. This happened even before the second round of demo occurred.

Now let’s have a look back to the original patio doors, shall we. Not to mention the original kitchen.

These door pretty much sucked from the second we moved in. The door on the right slides to the left, and I am using the term slide very loosely here. The kids weren’t able to do it themselves. The “lock” also broke pretty early in our residence. It was a metal bar you could slide horizontally between the door jamb on the left and the right side of the sliding door. Very high tech. Um, no. When the metal bar finally fell off, hubby, the engineer, replaced it with a piece of PVC pipe. We just wedged that PVC in there when we wanted to “lock” the door.

But how did you lock the door from outside, you ask? You didn’t.

When the kitchen renovation became an actuality, there was no question that it would include new patio doors. If you can believe it, I even ordered the doors in advance. Crazy, right? But it should come as no surprise to you that even though we ordered the patio doors (in September 2014) and they were delivered to the store the following month, Lowe’s still had to call us maybe a dozen times before we finally went in a picked the darn thing up. Dude, I’m just too cheap to pay $60 for delivery when Lowe’s is less than a mile from my front door. And by the time we had our beautiful french doors in our hands, it was too cold to install them. Yes, even I am smart enough not try to install (for the very first time ever) patio doors when it’s freaking cold outside. With my track record it could be days after removing the old doors until the new doors are installed.

The thought did cross my mind more than once to pay someone to come install the doors, but alas, that never happened. I also couldn’t find any decent videos or blog posts that explained the process. Unfortunately for you, this one isn’t going to be any help either.

The doors sat happily in our garage all winter until one fine day in June (2015) I decided it was time for those old doors to come out. Hubby helped me remove the actual doors, both the sliding one and the fixed one, but unfortunately I was too busy to take any pictures. The doors were quickly brought to the curb and waited for my favorite day of the month — Bulk Trash Day. And then we were left with the lovely frame.

Removing An Old Patio Door

1. Cut (score) the caulk where the siding meets the trim.

2. Remove the trim protecting the wood frame around the door.

3. Pry off the wood door trim. (This looks like it’s still the siding covering the wood, but it’s actually the wood)

4. Be sure to remove any nails left behind.

5. Now knock out that ugly metal frame!

And this is what you’ll be left with!

From the inside it looked like this. Obviously I removed the inside trim as well, but that’s very straight forward. (See more pictures of this stage of the kitchen demo in THIS POST)

There was evidence of some water damage on the right side, which I’m guessing happened before the screened porch was added. And ugh that floor vent! Of course I couldn’t live with it like that, so I moved it over to the far right corner. More on that in a later post.

How to Install Pella Architect Series Patio Doors

2. Test fit the door! Of course I couldn’t do this myself, so I had to call in the big guns… my husband and my favorite Green Beret. Notice how hubby and I share a love of protective footwear? Our door fit like a very tight glove. A very, very tight glove. But it had been hot as hell for quit a while, so the door was already at its max expansion. It’s mainly wood, but of course it doesn’t look that way from the outside.

3. We took the door back out and I applied sealant as per the directions: This setup is devised to keep water from entering the house but allowing any water that might get under the door frame to be released on the exterior side, in the center of the frame. No pictures of this, sorry.

One bead all the way across the interior of the sill (run caulk along the kitchen side of where the door will sit) and 6″ up the sides

The second bead of caulk goes in front of the first (exterior side) but you leave a 2″ break in the caulk

4. Reinstall door by placing the BOTTOM in first and then tilting the top into place.

5. Check for level and shim if necessary. (Back sweat much???)

6. Screw the door into the jams. This Pella Architect Series door also had a nail fin (metal edge that folded over and is attached to the outside opening) as seen below. Why do I post such terrible pictures of myself for everyone to see???

Tip: Don’t touch your brand new door with sealant on your hands, but if you do as I do and not as I say, it will come off with some acetone.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Love these doors! They look fabulous! Finding the right door style in any part of your home is important and makes all the difference in your home’s aesthetic! Nicely done! Thank you so much for sharing this update!

Thank you for walking through the process of installing new patio doors. Like you had before, I have so pretty hideous sliding doors that I would love to take out and replace. It’s good to know that the instructions were pretty straight forward so that you could just install the doors yourself.